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Improved access to the internet across the country has transformed the country’s rural economy.
The landscape of works and employments in rural areas has changed radically as the government reached broadband interment up to unions.
Till now, some 3800 unions have been connected with high-speed internet which was a daydream before the Digital Bangladesh programme was launched. The number of internet users in the country reached 128.78 million in September from only 5.6 million in 2008.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina initiated the Digital Bangladesh programme on December 12, 2008, to ensure effective and useful use of technology to turn Bangladesh into a developed nation.
Roaming around villages to district headquarters in Rajshahi, Natore and Jessore, Daily Sun found some impressive stories of individuals who transformed their life and empowered the communities using the benefits of rapid digitalization.
Many youths at the village and districts level become self-reliant using the digital platform of works which discourage them from thronging big cities in line with the government’s vision to decentralize the opportunities to work.
The time was late 2019, when Mosammat Alza, a student of Rajshahi College was introduced with the word ‘freelancing’. This new type of work enabled her to earn money staying at home.
“I heard about the training for freelancers from one of my friends. Then I registered with the LEDP programme of ICT Division in 2020,” Mosammat Alza, a young freelancer, said.
Under the Learning and Earning Development Project (LEDP), the government provides 200 hours of training in 50 days to develop skilled professionals for online marketplaces.
After attending a training in web development, Alza started working with through marketplaces like Fiverr and Freelancers. To address the need of global companies, she learned graphic design.
This young woman has already worked on projects for clients in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and many other countries.
“At present, I earn on average Tk 10,000 to 15,000 per month from online freelancing,” Alza said.
Alza’s success in freelancing inspired her younger sister Nahia Islam to work online.
Freelancer Umme Habiba Sathi in Natore received inspiration from her husband Mohammad Kamruzzaman to do freelancing jobs online. She completed a course on graphic design in 2020 and started her freelancing career on Fiverr.
“Online freelancing gives me the freedom to work. Now I earn on average $100 per month. We have to thank our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to develop Digital Bangladesh,” Umme Habiba Shathi told the Daily Sun.
Since the inception of the project in the 2016-17 fiscal, the government has provided training to 54.62 thousand individuals in two phases. Of the total trainees, 32.23 thousand already have earned $4.8 million, show official data.
Zahir Iqbal has created another inspiring story of empowering life with the use of technology.
Starting with a computer training centre in Jessore back in 2011, the young entrepreneur now leads an incorporated company — Abacas Soft from Jessore.
“A completion changed the landscape of Abacas. We get spaces at Sheikh Hasina Software Technology Park after winning a startup completion in 2020. Now the company has 12 staffers to serve local and foreign clients from Jessore,” Zahir Iqbal, founder of Abacas Soft, told the Daily Sun.
He said his company provides online and offline services to local and foreign companies including Linkedin.
“Apart from software development and web design, we provide informatics services to the foreign companies,” Zahir, also president of Jessore Startup, added.
State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak termed the freelancers as fighters of digital liberation in the line with government’s vision to turn the country into a developed one.
“The government developed infrastructures for the digital transformation of the economy. Now 38 thousand unions are connected with high-speed internet backed by optical fibre network. The freelancers and digital entrepreneurs are getting the benefits of the connectivity, one of the four pillars of Digital Bangladesh,” he said.
Over six million online freelancers are contributing to the national economy by bringing remittance from international marketplaces.
LEDP project director Humayun Kabir said the freelancing works has opened doors of opportunities for individual professionals who prefer to earn staying at home.
“Especially for the women, online freelancing is a blessing as they can earn foreign currencies through leveraging the skillets like graphic design, content writing and digital marketing. And there is no limit to earning,” Humayun Kabir, a deputy secretary, told the Daily Sun.
The officials hoped that the freelances will empower the economy further by earning more foreign currencies to surpass the earnings of expatriate Bangladeshis in near future.
Bangladesh is now the second-largest supplier of online labour in the world, with a 16 per cent share of the global online workforce, following India which has a 24 per cent share of the global online workforce, according to Oxford Internet Institute.
(DS)
